JK News Today Commentary
These are delicate times in Indo-Pak relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done well to explain the whole matrix and spotlight where the blame lay. His emphatic statement that Pakistan responded to goodwill gestures of India with hostility and betrayal is a big statement of truth rooted in history as also in the current times.
Prime Minister Modi’s podcast with Lax Fridman revealed the efforts that he, in person and as leader of the Indian nation made to foster peace and harmony with Pakistan, and how these were met with hostility and betrayal .Jammu and Kashmir and its people are the real time witness to all what PM said and did in his tenure since May 2014. Modi walked several extra miles to reach out to Pakistan only to get betrayal in return.
Who would know it better than the people of Jammu and Kashmir that how Pakistan has thrived on falsehood all these years since it sponsored tribesmen’s invasion of the princely state in October 1947? The people in this region have been victims of all sorts of atrocities unleashed by Pakistan. They can tell how India has suffered because of Pakistan’s hostile approach all the time.
Without going deep into the history, let’s focus on the Modi era so far. It was seen by the entire world that Modi had invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in may 2014 to attend his first swearing-in-ceremony , something that had not happened ever before .This was a demonstrative act of extending hand of friendship to the neighbouring country relentlessly engaged in causing terror-troubles in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the country.. To say that it was just a goodwill gesture tantamount to undermines the vast generosity that Modi extended toward Pakistan and its leadership.
It needs a little bit of understanding of the backdrop of history. Modi became Prime Minister after his hugely successful campaign in general elections in 2014. He assumed office of Prime Minister a little less than six years after 26/11- the devastating vast Mumbai terror attack in November 2008 . That assault sponsored and executed by Pakistan through its non-state actors in dreaded terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, left nearly 180 people of various nationalities dead. It was a strike at the financial capital of the country. In 9/11 assault on America in 2001, Al-Qaeda, the global terror network led by Osama bin Laden, and terrorists had hit Twin Towers of World Trade Center, challenging the financial invincibility of the super power. It was in line with the similar thinking that Pakistani terrorists had assaulted Mumbai, the financial capital of the country. This was an unforgiveable atrocity. Modi, then as Chief Minister of Gujarat, had called for a befitting reply, but the government of the day at Centre had other ideas. It flinched from a cross-border action in retaliation to the terror attack of the magnitude that was no less than 9/11 in lethality and intensity , but it was presumed that only the Western powers , particularly America had the monopoly of hitting back at the perpetrators of the crime against humanity and sovereignty of the nation.
Contrary to the expectations that Modi would send a very strong and hostile message to Pakistan after it was known that he is going to take over as Prime Minister in 2014 , he surprised the world by inviting Pakistan PM among other South Asian leaders to the inauguration of his government.. It was a display of his big-heart attitude toward Pakistan.
This, in itself was a big confidence building measure, rich in optics and reality both. The foreign secretary level talks were scheduled but by inviting the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to Pakistan High Commission in Delhi, Islamabad threw the talks off rails. This is how Pakistan has proved its historical unreliability.
Then came December 2015, Prime Minister flew to Lahore in an unprecedented gesture toward of peace and friendship toward Pakistan. He met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and joined in the wedding celebrations of his granddaughter, with a gift that signified that how many miles India was willing to walk to reach out to the neighboring county. That was on December 25, 2015, and a week later Pakistani terrorists attacked Pathankot Air station. That raised a question mark on the relations. India allowed Pakistani sleuths to join the investigation and the net result was the same- Pakistan rejected all the evidence that India had produced about Pakistan’s involvement in the fidayeen attack that resulted in fatalities of air force personnel. . Thereafter Pakistan adopted new strategies – in the aftermath of the killing of Hizb-ul Mujahadeen militant commander Burhan Wani in Kokkernag area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on July 8 , 2016, Pakistan activated its agents and incited mobs to target the security forces and the public property .Pakistan’s actions created chaos in the streets of Kashmir and the turmoil calmed after months of violence . But by that time more than 100 youth were dead and several others wounded and blinded . In a way Pakistan left no stone unturned in exhibiting to the world that Kashmir was in high velocity turmoil to draw the international attention .
India sent a powerful message by conducting surgical strikes across the LoC in retaliation to Pakistan sponsored terrorists attack on Uri garrison , leaving 20 soldiers dead . But Pakistan did not learn any lessons . it continued with terror activities , and on February 14, 2019 , it launched one of the most critical attacks on a convoy of security forces in Pulwama . Forty CRPF personnel sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Thereafter Modi again sent a message to Pakistan . The Pulwama attack was responded with aerial strikes in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at the terror training camps . But Pakistan has not learnt adequate lessons and is continuing with terror activities – infiltrating terrorists from its side to the Indian side , using drones to drop drugs and money,. It is broadcasting all sorts of negativities about Modi and India and Indians . it is frustrated as its game is up on Kashmir .
Pakistan is , where it is , because of its ideology of bloodshed and terrorism . So, PM is right in asking, “ What do you hope to gain by surrendering your nation to lawless forces.” Modi recalled his personal efforts to foster peace , including the visit to Lahore and the invitation extended to Pakistan for his swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister . He highlighted the diplomatic gesture as a testament to India’s commitment to peace and harmony as captured in the memoir of former President Pranab Mukherjee . And now he is absolutely right in his assessment that these efforts at peace were met with hostility and betrayal.
